Lily's Gone
by The Blasphemous Contessa
Summary: Three year old Lily Luna gets caught in a failed prank and ends up somewhere strange and new, luckily Teddy  the best god brother in the whole wide world  comes to rescue her. Now if only he knew how to get back.  Time Travel
1. Fairy Dust

Christmas Eve 2010

The entire Potter household made its way from the cozy cottage nestled just outside of the village of Godric's Hollow to Ottery, St. Catchpole or the annual gathering of extended family at the residence known as The Burrow. This particular gathering was often quite large as, unlike the smaller scattered gatherings in the spring and summer, every member of the family showed up. The few children who were old enough to attend Hogwarts always came home for Christmas even if they liked to stay at school over Easter or visit various friends and other relatives over the summer. Christmas belonged to the Weasleys and in-laws were always invited.

So it was that the Potters' arrival went mostly unnoticed, except for the red-haired matriarch who made a point of cooing over each grandchild as if she had not just seen them a few days earlier. Mrs. Weasley also deplored how thin her god-grandson was and exclaimed at how tall he had gotten in the months since she had seen him. The teenager's hair rapidly changed color over all the attention before settling on a shade of green that usually indicated he was blushing. It did not matter how much time Teddy spent with the Potters and Weasleys (which was actually quite a lot), he never was very comfortable with attention. Some would call him shy, but his godfather insisted he was merely "self contained". There were very few that would argue with the famous Harry Potter, though they could nearly all be found at The Burrow on any given Sunday. After the three younger children had been thoroughly kissed and cuddled by their grandmother, they ran off to find their favorite cousins and cause as much trouble as possible before it came time to decorate the tree over cider, egg-nog, and badly sung carols. The adults took the disappearance of the children as an excuse to catch up on the family gossip.

They weren't overly worried, as the family gathering included fourteen adults as well as the very responsible Teddy who considered it his job as eldest to look after the multitude of Weasleys and Potters. Besides, Mr. Weasley had long since placed a number of child-proofing spells and safety enchantments over the house and grounds at the Burrow.

The Attic

Fred and Jacob Weasley were notorious trouble makers, the problem with twins they were told. At eight years old, they considered themselves too old to be lumped in with the children. Though they would never admit it, they were secretly pleased that their younger cousin James, another prankster in the making, idolized them and followed them nearly everywhere. On this day however, they were planning something spectacular and couldn't risk being caught because of the indiscretion of a six-year-old. To that end they had ensconced themselves in a hidden alcove of the attic with a veritable treasure trove of items they had pilfered from various adults at every opportunity and hoarded for many months. Not the least of which being powdered fairy wings, asphodel, three ounces of time sand, a pocket cauldron, two broken wrist watches, a jar of something unlabeled that looked like dust, and the unicorn hair from the core of their mother's broken wand which she had kept for sentimental reasons. Their collection was admittedly vast and they had no idea what they were going to do with this haul, only that it was going to be spectacular and they would use a little bit of everything, including tears if they could get one of the babies to cry. What they didn't know was the first thing about potion-making, which was unfortunate considering that was the only way they could think to combine the items. The two boys were understandably frustrated and upset as their first attempt bubbled sluggishly, resembling so much mud. That was how Little Lily Luna, as most of the adults still called her, came to find them very near tears themselves as she toddled through the attic looking for a good place to hide from her brothers who had been tormenting her that day. In her haste she tripped over a cousin and landed face first in the steaming, bubbling, sludge. Like any good three-year-old, she did the only thing she could think of and began to wail; more with fear and surprise than actual pain.

With her eyes clenched shut she didn't notice the fog surrounding her though she did begin to feel inexplicably cold which only caused her to cry harder. Fred and Jacob looked at each other then simultaneously ran down the stairs yelling for Teddy. Perhaps they should have called for their parents, but Teddy had yet to fail to get the out of any pickle or jam and the elder Weasleys would likely be too busy scolding them to rescue Lily who had disappeared in swirling fog and been nowhere to be found when the fog had finally dissipated.

"Teddy! Teddy!" The sound of some child or other screaming for Teddy to get them out of trouble or hide them from the wrath of another relative was so common that the adults in the living room did nothing more than roll their eyes at each other and continue with their conversation. It wasn't until nearly fifteen minutes later when Teddy burst into the room panicked and breathless that anyone began to worry. It had been a long time since Teddy had been unable to contain a situation on his own.

"Lily's gone." Teddy gasped without preamble.


	2. Lethargy

_Thanks for all the alerts and favorites, I wasn't intending for this to be a serious story, just one of my many side projects but you have convinced me to put it on the front burner. Mostly the idea for this came from reading a lot of Next Generation time travel stories with the kids as teenagers, or James or Rose, I always thought it would be more interesting to have them deal with a very young child (with the added bonus that they won't recognize people and information blurting won't seem as strange and forced as it does coming from an older child.) I might have some of the other children go back as well but I always get irritated when I read a story where more than two or three kids time travel. Again, thanks for reading._

Christmas Eve 1980

The present members of the Order of the Phoenix were enjoying one of the most restful meetings they could remember. True the world was rapidly descending into chaos, but the Death Eaters seemed to have developed a sense of Christmas spirit and as a result there had been no major attacks in recent weeks.

The Order meeting was being held in the Potter family home as they had ample space and new mother Lily Potter wanted to be involved as much as she wanted to stay near her young son. Her good friends the Longbottoms had brought their son, Neville, as well and the meeting soon dissolved into a much more festive atmosphere with guests admiring the two boys and imbibing some in between sporadic "serious talk". It was shaping up to be quite the Christmas party. That is until the screaming toddler arrived in a swirl of fog.

She stopped howling suddenly when she softly landed and found herself surrounded by strangers. She looked around with wide eyes and her breathing became erratic as she opened her mouth as if to begin crying once more. Instead she surprised those present by softly whimpering a single word.

"Mummy?" she asked uncertainly, slowly backing herself toward the nearest wall. When she received no answer she asked again louder. "Mummy?" Then looking directly at Sirius she asked quite firmly, "Where did they go?"

"Where did who go?" Alice asked slowly approaching the girl. Alice was acting on instinct having always been a maternal sort of person.

"Freddy and Jake were bein' bad," the girl said instead. "I saw them. They did a no-no." Sirius glanced toward Remus who had found his way to his side. He had no idea who Freddy and Jake were, but given the current state of the world he couldn't be sure what kind of bad their "no-no" was.

"What did Freddy and Jake do?" Sirius asked abruptly before he could stop himself.

"They took Aunty's time dust for their potion! They was hidin' in the attic and Teddy was 'posed to be watchin' us. But Jamie and Al was bein' mean so I hided in the attic and I saw them. They was bad. Where Mummy?"

"We don't know," James told the girl gingerly. He could not explain it, but he felt inexplicably responsible for this child. "Can you tell us your name? Maybe someone here knows your parents." The girl didn't seem to have really taken in the vast number of people around her, but her head jerked in surprise at James' voice and she ran toward him so quickly, he almost didn't catch her when she jumped into his arms.

"Daddy! Daddy they was bein' mean. You told them to play nice, you did, I heared you. They wasn't being good brothers at all." She stuck her thumb in her mouth and looked around the room with wide eyes. "You not Daddy," she pronounced after a moment. "Why do you look like Daddy?"

"You have five brothers?" Sirius asked with surprise, goggling James as he tallied the number of names. Meanwhile Lily was unraveling the girl's last statement. James had no really close relatives, so how could he have resembled this other man closely enough that a child mistook him for her own father?

"No!" The girl pronounced as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I only got two brothers, Jamie and Al. The twins are cousins. Teddy's our god brother and he's the best."

"You still haven't told us your name," Remus prodded gently even as his eyebrows rose at the mention of the girl's brother.

"Oh, I'm Lily Luna. But everybody knows that. Mummy says none of us will ever have to inner-deuce ourselves, 'cause you can reckon-ice a Potter a mile away. Where is Mummy?" The girl – Lily – asked again this time craning her neck to look at everybody in the room. There, near where Alice had been standing was Marlene but Lily looked past her quickly, her gaze also flitted over Emmaline and two of the other present women. Her lip quavered as she realized she couldn't recognize a single person in the room.

"Are you strangers? Daddy says I'm not s'posed to talk to strangers."

"Oh boy," someone groaned though James couldn't quite tell who. It was as those present were digesting this new information and realizing how dire the situation really was that another swirling cloud of fog appeared at the exact spot where Lily had materialized a few minutes before.

As this puff cleared a gangly teenage boy could be seen staring about him with wide eyes. The boy was still short though long arms and legs hinted at a tall man to come. Most peculiarly, the boy had long disheveled hair that rapidly changed colors between blue, black, and orange at an alarming rate. He spun quickly pulling a wand from his pocket as he did so and calmed only when he saw Lily hanging on James' arm. Despite relaxing, his grip on his wand did not loosen nor did he lower his arm. "Leelee, are you okay?" He called just loudly enough to be heard but his voice was steady and reassuring. At James' urging, Lily moved quickly toward the boy and grinned.

"Got you?" She asked and wrapped her hand around two fingers on his left hand. At her touch his hair settled in a more tranquil shade a blue.

"Yeah, you got me good. Don't ever do it again," The boy told her as he gave her a one armed hug. He straightened then addressed the room. "Just what are you playing at?"

"What do you mean what are we playing at?" Gideon Prewett demanded hotly, speaking for the first time. "Here we are minding our own business when a midget banshee that no one has ever seen before shows up out of nowhere crying for her mother! Just what the hell do you think you're playing at?"

"Gid!" Fabian the calmer of the two scolded he had spent much more time with his nephews than his brother had and knew what raised voices and tension did to an already upset child.

"Yeah, maybe you could shed some light on this situation?" Sirius addressed the boy. "For instance, which one are you, and how did you get here? Lily doesn't seem to be capable of explaining the details."

"Oh right," The boy conceded, deflating a little. He opened his mouth the begin speaking but was stopped by some insistent tugging on his sleeve.

"Teddy, I'm hungry," the small redhead whined audibly. This seemed to shake the elder Lily Potter from whatever funk she was in because she immediately perked up.

"Of course dear, of course, I'll whip up some sandwiches in no time. Come along, the kitchen's through this way." While Lily Luna munched on peanut butter and jelly and the rest of the group nibbled on whatever they had chosen from the sandwich tray Teddy told the full story, or as much of it as he knew.

"So while I was telling off James and Albus, Roxy and Molly somehow slipped through the hedge but Vic helped me round them up and next thing I knew Freddy and Jacob were screaming that Lily fell into a potion they had made and turned into smoke. I didn't believe them at first, we learned a long time ago to take the twins' wild stories with a grain of salt but we were looking all over for you, I even interrupted the grown-up party to say we couldn't find you. So while everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off Jake pulled me up to the attic and showed me the potion you had fallen into. Hermione started studying it right away, but well Freddy and Jake are only eight so it wasn't like they were following a recipe or anything, there was all kinds of weird things in it like a broken wand core, some watches and dust from the Battle of Hogwarts and stuff. We weren't supposed to touch any of it, but Lily had been gone almost a whole day by then and Aurors were involved and the Department of Mysteries was all over the potion." Teddy alternately addressed Lily and the members of the Order paying no never mind to grammar or table manners.

"There was still some left, the Department of Mysteries only needed a sample and they could recreate the potion from that and I guess Freddy and Jake hid the rest because I accidentally got some on me. Not a lot but just enough to get Al crying thinking I would disappear, too. But nothing happened until I started to wash the stuff off. I guess it needs to be activated by water or something. I just hope they can make an antidote so someone can come and bring us back."

There was an awed silence after Teddy told his story. Trying his best to ignore the looks he was being given, Teddy dug into his remaining sandwiches with gusto, green hair the only thing indicating he was uncomfortable, and of course only Lily knew to pick up on that particular detail.

"So what do we do until then?" James asked. No one had any answers.


	3. Wonderment

_Thanks for the reviews, reads, favorites, and alerts. Ordinarily I would reply individually but this is a busy time of year for me. So I just want to say thank you. Also this story is mostly unformed so any requests and suggestions would be appreciated and if it's really good may be implemented in later chapters. I would also like to apologize for the lateness, not only was this chapter already written but I also had absolutely no computer problems so it was mostly just working overtime and then the winter holidays that kept me from posting. Sorry._

Potter Cottage 1980

Teddy Lupin was 96% sure that every adult in the room was dead. Only 96% because there were some he had never seen in pictures before and no one seemed to feel the need to introduce themselves. Now that the adrenaline and shock had worn off, Teddy realized he would have to be very careful about what he let slip. Going over what little details he had already given dread set in. There was no telling what Lily could have blurted before he arrived or how much of what a bewildered three-year-old said would be taken seriously by these people. Thinking about it, Teddy was surprised the Potters had insisted they be host to the young time travelers. Weren't they supposed to be on guard, waiting for whatever attack they believed Voldemort had planned? Or maybe they hadn't heard about the prophesy, yet. It was possible that their arrival had already changed things. What if their coming had somehow altered the time stream enough that they were never born? Teddy wished Hermione were there to help explain things to him, or barring her Janice, a muggleborn Ravenclaw in his year with whom he was friendly. Though Teddy doubted even Janice could unravel this one.

But more importantly, sitting across from him, watching speculatively as he ate, sat a man Teddy knew only from photographs and stories. Remus Lupin. Dead people chatted all around Teddy, some were very famous in his time, or at least beloved by his adoptive family, but Teddy had eyes only for his father. He was peripherally aware of Lily Luna being cuddled and spoiled by Alice and Lily but mostly he was half-dozing over his plate now that he knew they were both safe.

"So, you're the god-brother?" a voice asked startling Teddy from his reverie. He turned, surprised to find that James Potter had managed to sneak up on him. He must be more tired than he thought, it had been a long time since anyone not schooled in the art of sneaking managed to surprise him. _Though, _Teddy remembered from the stories he had heard about his father and his friends, _I supposed all four of them would have to be pretty stealthy to have never been caught. _

"Yeah, that's me." Teddy confirmed sleepily, "my parents died when I was a baby and Ha- I mean _Lily's parents_," Teddy corrected himself quickly, "practically adopted me even though I still live with my grandmother most of the time. Lily's dad is my godfather and he doesn't do anything by halves. Once I became part of the family, I became Part Of The Family Weasley cousins and all." James' eyes widened with surprise and Teddy cursed. "Shit! Pretend you didn't hear that last bit," he pleaded.

James only shrugged, "what does it matter if I know you're an honorary Weasley or not? There's only about thirty of them." Teddy had to admit that James was right about that.

Nodding his agreement somehow became nodding off to sleep. With a wide yawn, Lily had already fallen asleep in Sirius' lap after dubbing him "Unkah Doggy" after some half remember stories Harry had told her.

Seeing the young visitors asleep, the elder Lily insisted they stay at the Potter home in Godric's Hollow rather than be moved to a safehouse or Hogwarts. James agreed quickly, he wasn't quite done talking to the teenager anyway. He and Remus each grasped the boy under one arm but when Remus proved he was more than equal to the task of ferrying one scrawny teenager upstairs, James went ahead of them to turn down the sheets in the guest room. Lily would be staying in the nursery with Harry.

The boy stirred slightly as Remus tucked him in and squinted at him sleepily, "night Dad" he muttered before sleep took him completely. Remus turned to share an incredulous look with James who had hovered by the door.

"Did he just?" James asked his old friend.

"He called me 'Dad'," Remus breathed.

"Way to go, Moony. Any idea who the lucky lady is?"

"Not so fast Prongs. He _is_ half asleep. He may have been about to call you 'Mum'."

James laughed but remained convinced. There was something familiar about Teddy that had been nagging at James since the boy had finished his story. Thinking back, he recalled the way Teddy had watched Remus, the way he ducked his head when directly addressed and seemed unable to meet anyone's eye for very long. Just like Moony had when they were younger.

James found Lily standing in the doorway to the nursery watching the children sleep. This was not the first time he found her like this. For first few weeks they took turns standing vigil over Harry just watching him sleep, unconsciously counting his breaths. He was so new and tiny that everything he did terrified and thrilled them both to no end. Now, Lily watched Harry sleep peacefully on one end of the cot with Lily Luna squirming fitfully opposite him.

"Hey," James whispered kissing Lily's cheek as he wrapped an arm around her waist. She turned in his arms and smiled at him before kissing him again. James was eager to share his "Teddy is Moony's son" theory but he could tell that his wife had something on her mind and decided to let her speak first.

"Lily said something funny when I tucked her in a minute ago," Lily began quietly. James silently raised an eyebrow, inviting her to continue. "She said, 'Harry is my daddy's name, too.' I mean I know it's not an unusual name, but how many magical Harry Potters that look like you can there be?"

James nodded then added, "Teddy called Remus 'Dad' when we brought him up to bed. Moony reckons he was half asleep and didn't know who he was talking to, but-"

"But the way they were sizing each other up at dinner," Lily finished for him. "Yeah, I noticed that too."

"And Lily Luna mentioned something about time sand."

"We are so screwed." Both James and Lily turned quickly to find Sirius Black standing behind them grinning in a maniacal sort of way.

"Padfoot! I thought you'd left already."

"Naw, I was just thinking it would be such a shame to miss any little gems of information your guests may inadvertently blurt." He looked at James in that knowing and mischievous way that once-upon-a-time meant they would be up late the next night serving a detention. "And would you look at that, it seems they're not just random children, they're family."

"We THINK they might be," Lily corrected sternly, but she was grinning slightly as well. Lily Luna Potter was her granddaughter. Or might be. Lily turned to study the sleeping girl's face. Her hair was admittedly red, but rather than the dark titian of her own hair, Lily Luna's was much closer to the fiery orange that made a Weasley instantly recognizable. Molly was pregnant again, Lily knew. Maybe this one would be a girl? It was too soon to tell, a muggle woman might not have even known she was pregnant yet.

The child's other features were still baby soft, but Lily fancied the child had her high forehead and perhaps the curve of James' lips. But as for her nose and eyes, Lily had no idea where they could have come from.

In their sleep, both Lily and Harry sighed turning their heads and twined a hand through the longer hairs at the nape of their necks. The similarity in their behavior cemented Lily Luna's place in Lily's heart and sent shivers down her back. Harry was real. Of course he'd always been real, even when he'd been a tiny person in her belly more physically similar to a tadpole than a human, but Lily Luna was proof that Harry would grow up to be a real person with thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, goals, a love-life. Oh! Lily was far too young to be a grandmother, there were some who thought she was too young to be a mother. But the red-haired woman was just so ecstatic thinking about the person her little Harry would grow up to be. Maybe he was shy and bookish, or boastful and rude though Lily doubted it. Maybe he was brave and loving, he'd have to be with a daughter like Lily Luna. But most terrifying of all, Harry was a person of his own whom Lily would always love, but not always be able to protect. Babies grew up and Lily hadn't put much thought into that part until now.

These thoughts were new and disturbing, Lily chose to focus on the joy and wonder. Turning back to James and Sirius' conversation something occurred to Lily. "Tomorrow's Christmas," she gasped suddenly, interrupting Prongs and Padfoot's plotting.

"Yes, we know," Padfoot told Lilly, looking at her strangely.

"There's nothing for Teddy and Lily."

"To be fair, it's not as if we had any warning."

"Still, no child should be without something to open at Christmas." Lily rushed off with plans half-formed while James and Sirius just started after her.


End file.
